Examination of the fingerprints or other biometric features of an individual is a well known technique to establish a person's identity. In the past, fingerprints were recorded by applying ink to the finger and then rolling the finger on a piece of paper. Agencies then maintained these originals, or photocopies or photographs of the originals. Later comparison of these archives with a live or latent fingerprint could prove to be quite tedious and time consuming. More recently, methods have arisen to create fingerprint images that can be captured directly electronically for storage and/or analysis by a computer, or photographically for storage on film.
Advances in digital data analysis and data exchange have helped increase the availability and effectiveness of using fingerprints and palm prints for establishing identification. For instance, digital image acquisition techniques, networked electronic database, and mature software for searching and matching through the database have made it easier to capture, analyze and share biometric information such as fingerprints. However, serious challenges persist in at least three aspects: accurate and fast image acquisition, fingerprint and palm print recognition and identification software, and high performance data server/client speeds.
With respect to image acquisition, current technologies can be difficult to use and too often produce fingerprints and palm prints of poor quality. The limitations of current technologies include: the need to have a trained technician grasp and manipulate a person's finger or hand (frequently with multiple attempts) to successfully capture the print; the ability to capture rolled fingerprints and palm prints only one at a time; the corruption of image quality by just a small amounts of contamination or excessively dry or moist skin; the fact that fingerprints and palm prints of some persons with fine or worn friction ridges cannot be captured; relative slowness, with impressions taking anywhere from 5 minutes or more to capture; and high acquisition and maintenance costs.
The present invention addresses these and other drawbacks of the prior art.